*** PC powers on, but delays booting ***

[firebirdude]

Gigabyte P35-DS3R
Intel Q6600 CPU
OCZ 2x1GB DDR2 1066MHz
XCLIO GREATPOWER X14S4P3 550W Power Supply
MSI NX8800GT Video Card
10k RPM Raptor HDD
7200 RPM Western Digital HDD
XP Pro 32-bit (non-pirated)


The PC worked great for just over a year. Not a single hiccup. Then one day about a month ago it took about 30 seconds from power-on to post. No display on the monitor at all until the eventual post. Didn't even wake the monitor up. Next time I powered it on, it posted right up as normal. Then it progressively has gotten worse and worse. Now every single time I power it on, the fans spin and I can here one/both of the hard drives spin up, but no post. After about 30 seconds of sitting there, the PC will power itself off, pause 3 seconds, then power itself back on, after about 15 seconds it may post and go into windows or it may continue to wait, then power itself off again, then back on again, and then boot up.

Once it finally posts, it loads windows at a normal speed and once into windows everything works flawlessly. Even when pushed to the limit, never a problem. But once I turn it off for the night, it's hell the next morning.

 

[Pantlegz]

this it typically the sign of a power supply going bad, thats where I'd start.

 

[LumbergTech]

Originally posted by: Pantlegz1
this it typically the sign of a power supply going bad, thats where I'd start.

i second this

 

[firebirdude]

That's what I figured too. But why would everything work perfectly normal once it finally boots up? No random resetting. Nothing unusual at all.

 

[Pantlegz]

probably something to do with capacitors going bad, i'm not an electrician or EE but this is my guess. As they have to be 'filled' with electricity (a certain amount of charge) before it flows freely. if they're going bad maybe they don't hold electricity as well as they do when they were new so it takes longer for the electricity to flow. so you're sort of jump starting then at the moment but I would suspect they're not going to last very long. Again this is only my guess I'm sure someone could give you a more definitive answer, or maybe agree with me lol.